Thinking about getting an i7

Sycraft

Supreme [H]ardness
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Nov 9, 2006
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So the question is, of course, what motherboard? Normally I buy Intel boards, but since Intel elected to only do 4 RAM slots (and 12GB is part of the reason to do this) they are out. This now leaves me pondering what to do.

So, what motherboard would you get for an i7 that is NOT going to be overclocked? I don't do overclocking, stability is paramount. So OCing features aren't important.

Other than the 6 RAM slots, the important features to me are a stable board, good BIOS, and good web support. What I mean by that is a site that works well where you can get drivers and such easily. Intel would be an ideal example. ASUS is a pretty good example of how to not do it (their file servers die all the time).

Suggestions?
 
Stability and RAM allotment-wise the Asus P6T6 WS Revolution seems to be a good one to look at. Pricey though, and you still have Asus's legendary website to deal with.
EVGA has a great site and support, but I have heard the X58 board from them can be hit and miss at times regarding stability. Though for the most part the feedback has been positive.
The other boards out there seem to be a mixed bag and you may have either the most stable board in the world or multiple RMA's as Core I7 is still new tech.

If all works well and you won't need any support I vote for the WS Rev, but if support and website are big deals you may want to look elsewhere. Just my .02
 
Hmmm, well I won't rule ASUS out completely. That board though I don't know would work, since it has no PCI slots. I have an X-Fi, which is PCI. I suppose I could get a new soundcard, but overall I like my X-fi and I'm not looking to replace it.

The reason web support is important to me is updates. I like to keep my BIOS up to date for various reason (such as stability). If the website is crap, well then that's a problem.
 
I'd suggest avoiding Asus if you care about support. When the next new board comes out they all but stop updates on current products. Wanting to get rid of this board is what's really making me want to move to i7, and it even OC's pretty damned well. Every update between 1307 and 1901 introduced more bugs and didn't fix much either, not to mention the parts of the BIOS that are just not functioning.

That said, if you aren't going to overclock you don't need to update anything if your system is already stable (updates usually help with tweaking past the first few updates after release). Don't fix it if it isn't broken :p
 
I don't know what you guys are talking about. Asus updates bioses way more frequently than any other manufacturer. I needed a bios update for a P5W DH and they still had ones that were somewhat recent to add support for newer processors.

Gigabyte probably only has half the amount of bios updates as Asus.
 
So, what motherboard would you get for an i7 that is NOT going to be overclocked? I don't do overclocking, stability is paramount. So OCing features aren't important.
Get the cheapest.

Gigabyte UD3R
Gigabyte UD4P
Asus P6T
Asus P6T Deluxe
 
what about the basic intel x58 board if you ongt need bells and whistles
 
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